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Alicia Martin

Alicia Martin. By Emily Sneeden.

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Alicia Martin

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  1. Alicia Martin By Emily Sneeden

  2. Choose a significant artist involved with installation work. Research the artists work and life. Prepare an in-depth presentation of their work from a conceptual and technical point of view. Discuss the historical context of the work, illustrating influences and/or similarities with other work. Discuss the ideas behind the work and compare/contrast these with the work of others. Identify where you think the work fits within the categories of installation we've identified in class. If it fits none, describe how you propose the work functions from the viewers perspective. Discuss the theoretical foundation of the work. Multimedia samples of work are encouraged. This is not a PowerPoint "quickie" book report! It should be a well researched, thoughtfully considered, and provoking investigation into the life and work of someone whose work matters to you. Tell us why this artist is significant and how you are influenced. By the same token, this is not a cheerleading or promotional activity either. Critically analyze the work for conceptual, experiential, cultural, and other deficiencies. How would you improve the work? This is not intended as a survey of an artist's entire catalog. Focus on a single project, perhaps mentioning a few others if they were significant in the development of the primary work. The presentation should last a minimum of 30 minutes. There is no upper limit as long as the length is appropriate to the content. Turn in the presentation and a complete bibliography on CD or DVD. Link your presentation to the class website so your classmates, and future students can benefit from your work. You will be evaluated based on the content, the incisive nature of your analysis, and the quality of your presentation.

  3. Artist Biography She was born in 1964 in Madrid Spain and still lives there.

  4. Historical Context Alicia Martin belongs to the generation of Spanish artists that began exhibiting in the early '90s. Initially, this generation was known for a metaphorical use of objects and materials, and for the importance of subjectivity in their work. Even sometimes in relation to seemingly neutral themes, these artists often made themselves into the substance of their art. That was a long time ago, however, and those early years were difficult; the economic crisis of the time meant that many galleries and collectors were resistant to anything that seemed new. Yet the absolute freedom with which these artists worked as well as the novel character of their proposals gave rise to powerful and fresh art.

  5. Historical Context Many young creators from those years (including Santiago Sierra, EulaliaValldosera, Montserrat Soto, and Ana Laura Alaez) are now leading figures in contemporary Spanish art. Among them, Martin is a remarkable figure. Early on, she made a name for herself with object-based works, especially those in which she used a variety of materials in combination with books, her favorite raw material. The results were so impressive that she came to be identified with that work.

  6. Different types of book installations

  7. Influences The name of her new exhibition, "Subjetivos" (Subjective), furthers the idea that has run through her work since the beginning: the clash or dialectic between a person and an external reality--a reality whose objectivity is sensed yet unknown since it can only be experienced through the mediation of our subjectivity. Apparently Martin realizes that while more works about books might assure her commercial success, continuing artistic vitality depends instead on working with ideas, nuances, and even forms that she has not explored before. This doesn't necessarily mean a complete break. The triptych Hasta que la muerte ... (Until Death Do ...), 2005, like a number of her latest pieces, harks back to the artist's past. In this piece, Martin reworks a photograph she used a decade ago in the intense "Acupuntura sentimental" (Sentimental Acupuncture), 1995. This time, she subjects the photograph to an ambiguous pun tightly linked to the real. A tense relation between language and reality once again comes into play in Sinfonia (Symphony), 2004, a video showing a disoriented rat wandering through a maze while a child's voice awkwardly recites the alphabet.

  8. Influences Martin's greatest innovation in this show is the use of language as a key dramatic element. In addition to the two pieces mentioned above, there is a third that consists of spheres on whose surface appear images and words, sometimes distorted or altered. By cutting out or underlining parts of words, Martin alters not only their syntax but also their meaning, thus showing that expressions like todo (everything) and historia (history) are not precise, but relative and subject to manipulation. D4, 2003, a large, realistic graphite portrait of a girl--the artist's daughter, in fact--presides over an exhibition that relates childhood with the difficulty of learning preestablished codes. The girl in the portrait stretches out her arms in an elusive gesture that seems to be one of offering. It is the only purely visual piece in the show, the only one without need of words.

  9. Biografias 2003, site specific installation, Casa de America, Madrid

  10. Category of Installation Site-specific (Not really Dream-Scene/ Heightened Perception/ Mimetic Engulfment or Activated Spectatorship) Closest to Dream Scene- imaginary world Tower of Books

  11. Review- Conceptual I came upon an amazing sculpture by contemporary Spanish artist, Alicia Martin who uses books as the raw material for her works. If you love books as much as we do, you will delight in her installations. The curator at Galleria Galicawho represents the artist says, "Symbols of culture, of memory and of communication, the books in her works end up being at times restless, at others ironic, poetic or even aggressive, but always intent on forcing us to think about certain central issues of contemporary life: the instability of knowledge, the fragility of memory and the need for it, the information Babel of the mass media, the difficult relationship between cultures. No longer shut away in libraries or reduced to a furnishing accessory, the books/work of this artist turn into a shapeless incumbent concretion that tenaciously clings to the walls of the gallery and seems to elude the laws of gravity. Never repetitive, the works of Alicia Martín manage to turn books into animated objects, full of symbolisms that act as powerful but ungraspable echoes." The sculpture pictured here required 5,000 books. Watch the YouTube video as the location is stunning and the books seem to come alive as pages rustle in the breeze, and almost speak to the circling observers.

  12. Installation 2007, MUSAC, Leòn

  13. Links • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9Ey1nt-VgA&feature=related • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Od81xDvoM34&feature=related

  14. Bibliography • http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0268/is_6_44/ai_n26767803/ • http://www.bookbuffet.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/news.article/article_ID/B31C2CDD-BE7A-44F4-855F20620200D54D/index.cfm • http://www.galica.it/ing/artista.asp?id=33# • http://inspirationgreen.com/art-from-old-books.html

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